US3236531A

US3236531A - Well packers

Info

Publication number: US3236531A
Application number: US256323A
Authority: US
Inventors: James C Mcconnell
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1963-02-05
Filing date: 1963-02-05
Publication date: 1966-02-22
Anticipated expiration: 1983-02-22

Description

Feb. 22, 1966 J. c. MGCONNELL WELL PACKERS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Feb. 5, 1965 INVENTOR.

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United States Patent 3,236,531 WELL PACKERS James C. McConnell, P.O. Box 1236, Seymour, Tex. Filed Feb. 5, 1963, Ser. No. 256,323 1 Claim. (Cl. 277116.4)

This invention relates to improvements in casing packers and more particularly to casing packers to be attached to the lower end of a casing pump or therebelow, to enable a seal to be formed between a well casing and a tubular member on which the packer is mounted to enable the casing pump to be used in a well without having to use tubing from the casing pump to the top of the well.

Various packers have been proposed heretofore to form such a seal, but these, for the most part, were combined with expansible slip means to anchor the packer within the wall of the casing and did not hold the casing pump at a fixed level within the well casing.

The present invention provides for maintaining the elastomer packer element in a retracted position while the packer is being run into the casing, preparatory to the sealing thereof, and while it is being removed therefrom.

An object of this invention is to provide a well packer for use in a bore hole of a well, which packer may be readily run into the bore hole and held against engagement with the wall of the well while the packer is being run thereinto, and which may be readily manipulated to allow the packer to be expanded into fluid tight relation with the wall of the well after it is set to the desired depth in the bore hole of a well.

Another object of the invention is to provide a well packer which may be readily manipulated to enable the removal thereof from the bore hole of the Well without allowing the elastomer packer element to engage the wall of the well in sealing relation, even with high pressure fluid moving upward through the well casing and through the packer while the packer is being removed.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a casing packer which will readily seat on an anchor which extends to the bottom of the bore hole of the well, thereby maintaining the packer at a fixed level with respect to the bore hole of the well.

Another object of the invention is to provide a well packer which is simple in construction, easy to operate, low in the cost of manufacture, and is relatively free from operational difficulties.

With these objects in mind, and others which will become manifest as the description proceeds, reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings in which like reference characters designate like parts in the several views thereof, in which:

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view through a cased bore hole of a well, with parts being shown in elevation and with parts being shown as shortened, and with parts broken away to bring out the details of construction;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken on the line 22 of FIG. 1, looking in the direction indicated by the arrows;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged longitudinal, sectional View through the well packer, with the packer being shown in position ready to expand the elastomer element thereof;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken on the line 4-4 of FIG. 3, looking in the direction indicated by the arrows;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken on the line 55 of FIG. 3, looking in the direction indicated by the arrows;

FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken on the line 66 of FIG. 3, looking in the direction indicated by the arrows;

FIG. 7 is an elevational view of the packer shown apart from the casing pump and the well casing, the packer being shown in extended relation, as it would appear while being run into the well without fluid or pressure 3,236,531 Patented Feb. 22, 1966 reacting thereagainst, with a portion being broken away and with a portion being shown in section to show the details of construction;

FIG. 8 is a view similar to FIG. 7, but showing the packer being run into the well in which fluid or pressure is present in the well;

FIG. 9 is a view similar to FIG. 7, but showing one portion of the packer rotated with respect to the position shown in FIG. 7, preparatory to seating the packer within the well casing; and

FIG. 10 illustrates the packer in the seated position thereof.

With more detailed reference to the drawings, the numeral 1 designates generally a well casing in the bore hole of a well, which well casing usually has perforations 2 therein, near the bottom thereof, to permit fluid to flow from strata 4 thereinto. The present packer is shown to have a perforate anchor 6 on the lower end thereof, which perforations are at spaced intervals, as indicated at 8. The anchor 6 is preferably closed at the lower end by a bull plug 10, which seats on the bottom 12 of the well. A coupling 14, which may be a reducing fitting, is connected to the perforate anchor 6 and to the lower end of a sleeve 16 of a packer unit, designated generally by the numeral 18. The sleeve 16 is screw threaded on each end, as indicated respectively at 20 and 22, which enables a reducing fitting 14 to be attachably secured thereto at the lower end of the sleeve, and enables a metallic, threaded collar 24 to be secured to the threads 22 at the upper end of the sleeve 16.

A shaped, hollow, elastomer packer member 26 is bonded or vulcanized to the upper end of the threaded metallic collar 24, and is so positioned as to receive a conical portion 28 of expander member 30 within a conical recess 27 formed in elastomer packer member 26. The conical expander member 30 is internally threaded, as indicated at 32, to receive a screw threaded nipple or plunger 34, which nipple or tubular plunger extends into a reciprocating tubular member 37 of casing pump 36. A conventional casing pump 36 such as shown in vol. 2, pages 2872-2873, of the 1964-65 Composite Catalog of Oil Field Equipment and Services, published by Gulf Publishing Company, Houston, Texas, is illustrative of the pump used, or the pump as shown in Patent No. 1,698,797 to C. P. Howe, which pump 36 is threaded at the lower end thereof and has the usual check or standing valves (not shown) therein, which reciprocating tubular member 37 is secured to a sucker rod 38, which sucker rod extends to the surface of the well to be actuated by a pump jack or the like. The sucker rod 38 also forms an actuating means to set the packer 18 in the casing 1 and to remove the packer from the casing, so by rotating the sucker rod 38 in a conventional manner, as by a pipe wrench, the tubular member 37, the plunger 34 and the second sleeve 44, attached to the plunger 34 by an expander member 30, will cause the second sleeve 44 attached thereto to rotate in a conventional manner, either to move bolts 48 into longitudinal alignment with slots 52 or into alignment with slots 50, which enables the packer to be set or removed at will. The casing pump 36 is of conventional design and pumps fluid upward therethrough and out through perforate cage 40.

The casing pump 36 may either be of the reciprocating piston type, which pumps on the upward stroke, or of the type whereby a stationary, upstanding plunger 34 is within the outer tubular member 37, which tubular member reciprocates, and the pump pumps on the downward stroke, either type pump would be of conventional design.

The casing pump 36 has the sucker or pump rod 38 connected to a perforate cage 40, which cage is secured to the upper end of pump 36, and which cage is screw threaded at the upper end thereof to threadably receive the threaded connection of sucker rod 38, which arrangement enables the reciprocation of the tubular member 37 of the pump 36- relative to the plunger 34 thereof. The plunger 34 is attached to the hollow conical expander member 30 so as to draw the fluid being pumped in through perforations 8 and upward through perforate anchor 6 into the lower end of tubular sleeve 16, thence upward through the packer, designated generally at 18, and through pipe 34 into the lower end of the casing pump 36.

The expander member 30 is internally screw threaded at the lower end thereof, as indicated at 31, and has an axial passage 31a therethrough. A second sleeve 44 is screw threaded into screw threads at the lower end of expander member 30, which sleeve 44 extends downward into the first sleeve 16, The sleeve 44 is apertured at 46, immediately below the expander member 30, to form a drain when the expander member 30 is unseated with respect to elastomer packer member 26.

The sleeve 44 has screw threaded apertures intermediate the length thereof to threadably receive bolts 48, which bolts form abutments, as will best be seen in FIGS. 3 and 5. It is to he noted from FIG. 3, that the outer sleeve 16 is relatively thin as compared to the expander member 30. The heads of the bolts 48 extend outward for sliding engagement with parallel,

longitudinal slots

50 and 52, which are formed within tubular sleeve 16, and for limited rotary movement with respect to tubular sleeve 16. The slots 50 each have the upper ends thereof recessed, as indicated at 54 to form abutments to enable the heads of bolts 48 to fit therein to prevent accidental rotation of the sleeves relative to each other, While going into the well or being removed from the well. A similar indentation 56 is provided in the lower end of each slot 52 to prevent accidental turning when the elastomer packer member 26 is forced upward, by gas or fluid pressure, while the device is coming out of the hole.

The respective pairs of parallel, longitudinal slots are spaced apart arcuately more than onehalf the width of the slots, and each pair of longitudinal slots 5052 is connected by a lateral slot 58, which enables the sleeve 44 to be rotated relative to sleeve 16 in order to move the bolts 48 from slots 50 into slots 52', as indicated in FIGS. 8 and 9. When the heads of bolts 48 are moved into slots 52, the bolts 48 may be lowered therealong until expander member 30 engages and expands elastomer packer member 26.v The expansion of the packer member 26 is accomplished by the anchor 6 being seated on the bottom of the well to support the packer and the non-reciprocating portion of the casing pump, which will relieve weight from bolts 48, whereupon, the rods 38 may be raised, which, in turn, will raise expander member 30 and sleeve 44 until the heads of bolts 48' are out of recesses 56, whereupon, in the present instance, the rods may be turned clock-wise, which will cause the heads of the bolts to pass through the lateral slots 58 between the parallel,

longitudinal slots

50 and 52, and with the heads of the bolts in position as shown in FIG. 9, the casing pump 36 may be lowered, the weight of which casing pump will cause expander member 30 to wedgingly engage elastomer packer member 26 to move the peripheral edge of the elastomer packer member 26 into seating relation with the inner diameter of well casing 1. Since the weight of the casing pump is on the packer, and the packer is supported by an anchor which extends to the bottom 12 of the well, the rods 38 may be moved upward to locate the plunger of the casing pump 36 in the correct relation within the length of the cylinder 37, whereupon, the rods may be connected to the conventional pump jack and-reciprocated to pump oil, water or the like from the earth strata 4.

To remove the casing pump 36 from the well, the sucker rods 38 are moved upward until the expander member 30 is out of engagement with elastomer packer element 26, whereupon, the fluid, such as water, oil, or gas, will pass through hole 46 into sleeve 44, and when the pressure has become equalized, the rods and the casing pump 36 may be moved upward, if there is no pressure below the elastomer packer member 26.

If pressure, below the packer member 26, is present, the rods are turned counter-clockwise while the heads of the bolts 48 are opposite lateral slots 58', which will move the heads of the bolts from the position as shown in FIG. 9 to the position shown in FIG. 8, whereupon, an upward pull on the rods 38 will move the heads of the bolts 48 into the position as shown in FIG. 7, which will prevent the packer member 26 and the expander member 30 from coming into contact relation, thereby closing the well casing, and also permits the flow of fluid through the packer member 26.

Having thus clearly shown and described the invention, what is claimed as new and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

A well packer for use in combination with a pump in a well casing, which well packer comprises;

(a) an inner sleeve,

(b) a thin outer sleeve fitted around said inner sleeve in relative sliding relation with respect thereto,

(c) said sleeve having pairs of adjacent, parallel, longitudinal slots formed therein in diametrically opposed positions,

(1) adjacent slots of each pair of slots being spaced apart arcuately a distance of at least the width of one of said slots,

(2) each pair of adjacent longitudinal slots comprising a long slot and a comparatively short slot,

(d) said outer sleeve having a lateral slot formed therein between the adjacent slots of each pair of slots, which respective lateral slots interconnect said longitudinal, adjacent slots of each pair of slots intermediate the length thereof,

(e) diametrically positioned abutments secured exteriorly to said inner sleeve and being of a length to extend through like slots in each pair of diametrically opposed slots formed in said outer sleeve,

(f) tubular means, including a pump and pump rod, connected to said inner sleeve for moving said inner sleeve longitudinally with respect to said outer sleeve and for rotating said inner sleeve with respect to said outer sleeve within the limits defined by said slots and said abutments,

(g) an elastomer packer member, having a conical recess formed therein, secured to the upper end of said outer sleeve,

(h) a conical packer expander member secured to the upper end of said inner sleeve for complementary seating relation within the conical recess of said elastomer packer member, and

(i) an anchor pipe secured to the lower end of said outer sleeve, to extend therebelow, for maintaining said well packer a spaced distance above the bottom of the well, upon the lowerend of said anchor pipe engaging the bottom of the well.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 249,228 11/1881 Dower 166-199 X 747,321 12/1903 Heeter 166-199 1,524,158 l/1925 Steen 166-199 2,223,099 11/1940 Fisher 166l99 X 2,375,972 5/1945 Wood et al. 166-199 X 2,496,546 2/1950 Lamb 166-202 X CHARLES'E. QCONNELL, Primary Examiner;